A defiant President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected a UN Security Council resolution that demands Tehran halt sensitive nuclear work, and called for a Middle East free from the presence of the United States and Israel.

"If they think they can use a resolution as a stick against us, they should know that Iranian people do not bend to language of force," Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech to a vast crowd in the northwest province of Ardebil.

But, true to form, the newest 60 Minutes icon couched his rantings within a bed of reason, playing to a Western audience seemingly eager to believe that the world's foremost state sponsor of international terrorism just might actually be pursuing Three Mile Island vice the Manhattan Project.

Ahmadinejad said he had spoken to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan by telephone and "told him that we are willing to resolve the problem through negotiations... but by this resolution, we have lost our confidence in them."

Negotiations. What a novel idea.

Has anyone noticed that Iran's nuclear program is not on the table and non-negotiable?

"We will give our response on the announced date [Rajab 27 - August 21 or 22], and our reply will be based on defending the absolute rights of the Iranian people," he said, amid chants of "nuclear energy is our undeniable right".

Any questions?

Meanwhile, ever-sensitive to the divisive nature of religious depictions in cartoons, the Iranian regime sponsored and displayed entries for a Holocaust cartoon contest in Tehran.

It has always struck me ironic how the American media mentions Ahmadinejad's religious hatred for Jews and Israel so matter-of-factly, if at all. He is not portrayed as a religious fanatic. No, he is far, far more often referred to as a 'devout' Shi'a Muslim, or a man of pious upbringing or simply a Shi'a.

Yet, on a regular basis we are reminded of the dangerous fanaticism of a Pat Robertson or a Jerry Falwell.

Please forgive me, but while I have no real opinion of either Robertson or Falwell, did I miss something?

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1 Comment

AMEN! This is one man that the US and the rest of the world had better take seriously. From sources I've read, he more dangerous than Hitler ever was. Combine him with Syria's maniac, North Korea's maniac and the whole host of other maniacs who all are intent in establishing a world-wide caliphate; it seems we have a very poisonous mix indeed.